Grotta Maggiore di San Bernardino (Mossano, Vicenza)

The San Bernardino cave opens on the eastern slope of the Berici plateau at 135 m a.s.l. Its stratigraphic sequence records three main paleoclimatic cycles, shifting from temperate to dry cool conditions from the Middle-Late Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. Units II, VI and VIII record humid climatic conditions, the expansion of woodlands, and an increase in the rate of accumulation of anthropogenic remains with respect to the units IV, V and VII, as suggested from the frequency of faunal remains, lithic artefacts, and hearths. The most abundant hunted ungulates are roe deer, red deer, with moose, wild boar, and bovines, while cave bear is the most numerous carnivore. Levallois is the dominant flaking method, using mostly the recurrent centripetal modality in the oldest unit and the unidirectional in units from VII up to II. Reduction sequences on locally provisioned blocks/nodules were carried out on-site, and fractioned sequences of exogenous flint may have involved partially exploited cores and curation/rejuvenation of the retouched tools that were introduced into the cave at varying degrees of reduction. At a general level, flake-manufacture is characterized by intense core exploitation, yielding microlithic blanks